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Being an Empath

Unfolding the Higher Paradigm
Imagine being able to feel and sense everything, whether positive or negative around you, 24/7. An Empath can’t turn off empathy (unlike someone who is perhaps 'empathising'). It is possibly one of the most challenging of psychic gifts to master. I am an Empath who has spent nearly two decades, since awakening, mastering my empathic nature. It is an ongoing process. I am still not perfect and not sure that I ever will be whilst incarnated here. I am however content, despite the challenges of integration, as I see it as an incredible gift to humanity...

Empaths incarnate into this world without a manual. Some seem quite blessed in that they bring with them the memories of mastery from past lives. Even then, the remembering is often a bumpy journey in itself. To add to the confusion, most Empaths cannot tell the difference between their own energy and someone else’s. Something happened on my journey where I just ‘got’ the difference. It came from increased presence. There is a subtle vibrational difference that we can discern when we are fully present. Constantly attaining presence within spiritual evolution is a very important key to mastering empathic gifts that I cannot over emphasise.

Everything is energy

Everything is energy, pulsating particular vibrations. Since an Empath feels energy, just like a living person breaths air, it is understandable why a few issues might arise as an earth-incarnated-being. Humanity (apart from perhaps indigenous cultures), is one big confusing energetic vibrational mess! The modern world is a melting pot of fractured and frantic energies: for example, loaded emotional projection, hidden agendas (whether personal or global), wi-fi, mobile phone radiation, electric gadget emissions, multi media marketing designed to allure and captivate, highly processed foods, TV, the thudding din of consumerism... the list goes on and on.

Empaths will feel the energy in the field, feel the energy of conversation, feel body language, feel words used (or not used) without intellectual interpretation. They will intuitively know what an energy is ‘really’ about despite what is conveyed on the surface. They will also know what a person is really saying, no matter what words are being offered.

Because of the tendency for people to hide the full story, or try to control the situation, an empath will tend to feel a huge inner conflict or inability to process the enormity of the engagement. One of the main problems for Empaths is the lack of transparency and honesty in the world and the consequent resentment of having to process all the energy that is not in full view. Of course lots of of these sensitive beings struggle also with things that are in full view too.

"Make it go away!!!"

Most people who have this trait do not see it as a gift. I would more often expect to hear the pleading cries to make it stop. Initially, it often involves being so overwhelmed with feeling energy that it is challenging to function in an ordinary sense. Empaths often come across as over emotional, at times others become emotionally detached in order to cope. It wouldn't be unusual that they might just 'freak out', without apparent cause. They often prefer their own company and don’t like to build many personal relationships.

In my early days I used to cry out to the universe"I don’t want to feel all this energy - it’s not mine"...
the universe would always reply that it is a gift.“How on earth is this a gift!!!”

I often found it difficult to get close to people in a personal ‘every day’ sense. It would drive me nuts, so I would prefer independence or distance. Independence and contentment with only a couple of close friends still feels very natural to me. In a way, it's a saving grace.

Powerful impetus to sort it out

The initial overwhelming intensity served a wonderful purpose for me. It evoked a powerful yearning to master my unique configuration here as an earth-being. It created the impetus for me to come to terms with my natural born empath traits and master them, eventually finding a high altitude of peace and functionability with it all.

The importance of releasing emotional attachment
Releasing emotional attachment is the main key to mastery. Most Empaths suffer needlessly because they cannot release their personal emotional attachment to feelings. If we let go of attachment, it doesn’t mean we won’t feel. It just means that we don’t get tangled in the feeling anymore. It means we can watch as things happen and really discern that ‘that isn’t us’, ‘that isn’t our own feeling’ and really begin to embrace when we are DIVINELY GIVEN to take action or not.

For me this involved years of becoming consciously aware and centred. Once I started coming from a centred place of presence, I began to discern what I was meant to do, releasing emotional attachment to both that which is not meant for me and that which was. This is a very powerful factor as it means that we can still feel the energy empathically, but it doesn’t bother us adversely any more. We are able to act of infinitely more divine service when we are not attached emotionally. In fact unless we come from this place, we would tend to make a situation worse not better. That’s the bottom line. It means we feel the energy with the deepest compassion, yet we can truly hold the space for another. In so doing, we reflect the light of benevolence, allowing true healing to take place.

Finding inner peace and stability

Daily centering, meditation practice, yoga, compassionate eating, conscious lifestyle, conscious choices that cleanse our energy field and promote centredness will all help big time! Being in nature serves to recentre and recharge depleted energies. Spending regular time in solitude away from idle chatter and drama can be invaluable. I would say that making sure that a bare minimum of half an hour per day consciously looking after yourself is crucial. The more the better. The above are very important. There may also be many other ways, such as swimming in the ocean, hill walking, having a bath with oils or salt, giving yourself a foot massage, listening to your favourite music, playing an instrument, conscious bodywork or massage... basically whatever it is that helps you maintain balance and build up your sense of inner peace and stability.

Another important key is ownership. If you have the trait, then to deny it just makes it worse and ensures that our spiritual evolution is dysfunctional. Our evolution will happen when we embrace our unique configuration. So we need to be 100% honest with ourselves and know that it will get much easier the more and more present with become with it. The only way out is through.

Without these practices it is very difficult (I am not sure if it is even possible) to master being an empath here. So if the motivation is a little lacking, JUST DO IT anyway until you find a rhythm to your daily life that you see working.

A true gift of benevolence

So whether you are an empath or you know one personally, hopefully this is helpful in some way.

I truly believe that, the challenges as highlighted are there to help us refine and alchemically transform this true gift of benevolence. The gifts of empathy have the power to really make a difference in this world. This is what most people who feel the call of Divine Service long for, to be able to help others in a life changing way.

An evolved Empath has the natural ability to connect on a Soul level, helping to release blocked energy with another. An Empath, if given, can also release coagulated energy within the field at large, discerning between what is benevolent and what is not. Since everything oscillates a frequency that can inadvertently influence everything around it, then a truly benevolent Empath realigning the energy field can help make a huge difference in terms of spiritual evolution.

Whether an Empath not, if we can all work together with our gifts we can allow this higher paradigm of to unfold together.

Comments

It's a deeply insightful article Trinity - I got the sense more of the energy between the words than the words themselves. Or rather, the words built a "visual feeling picture" for me in my energy body which then just seemed to communicate!

In my view, being empathic is the real energy behind true healing. Anyone whose been on an Openhand workshop may have discerned that Trinity and myself work in harmony. I observe the intellect closes so many people off from the true depths of inner feeling. So I begin by communicating at the intellectual level to bring people to a state of mental surrender - it's like closing all the exists on the roundabout!

After that, there's only one place left to go - inside. Using directed energy feeling, people are then taken directly into their inner disharmony - that which limits our evolution.

It's then that the skills of empathy can work to their full potential. This is what Trinity does in abundance - even though most are rarely aware of the energetic assistance that is happening through the ether.

An empath feels the field of another, attunes to it, but then gently resonates a higher frequency so that people can feel their own energy body more clearly. Since evolution happens by increased internal sensitivity, it means people can feel their own blockages and then unity consciousness constrained within them.

Once you can truly feel your blockage, then you already have the power to move the energy. This then allows your higher self consciousness simply to unfold. As more of us do this, so does the higher paradigm unfold.

thanks for the excellent article. I resonate greatly with what you expressed. It feels really valuable for example to spend time alone and on practices that enhance the clarity of soul and one's own field. And then also to recognise the gifts within it and to allow those to naturally unfold.

One of the things that interests me is when I can feel what the ego/identity wants (in another person), and often that seems to mask the yearning of the soul. Sometimes it can feel confusing initially - it might be easy to confuse that ego wanting with soul yearning, especially when very strong. Sometimes I feel both, but with practice it seems to be-coming more clear. It really helps to not be 'invested' or attached to the process - so then I don't feel such a need to please or be a certain way either to appease the ego or to attune to the soul. And I feel this makes it easier to naturally attune to the authentically arising in the moment.

Also it feels very interesting being in shops and towns etc. They're so designed as to attract and 'pull at' people's attention to buy certain products or at least to look at them. The energy of the matrix feels pretty strong in these places. This has felt overwhelming before, and still can do. I find if I can be more aware with my own feelings that makes it easier, though it can feel challenging to really feel in those places.
In practical ways if I feel to go into shops for something if I can have that thing as a focus (rather than just going in and wandering round!) that can be valuable. That way I'm more likely just to buy what I'm meant to and not random things!
though also holding the space for authentic impulses to arise in the moment too! A balancing act it seems...

Thank you so much for this sharing Trinity. There’s so much that resonates with me that I’ve read it about three times today already. I feel like a ‘penny has dropped’ to explain all the years of being a sponge to other people’s feelings. It has only been over the past couple of years that I have started to realize that sometimes the feelings don’t belong to me. One thing that has been incredibly valuable for me to recognize when the feelings are not mine is the practice of being the ‘seer’ - observing the feelings and seeing what arises. I may have empathy with what someone is saying but observing the feelings when they arise helps me to determine if they are arising in me or not. My sensitivity to this practice has only come since I started to learn these techniques from Openhand, as well as making quite a lot of lifestyle changes like the ones you have suggested. As I continue to integrate the energy from the retreat (and become more committed to my lifestyle choices!), I hope that in time I will reach a point where I can not only recognize that the feelings don’t belong to me, but also help whoever I am with to process their energy blockages (if that’s something I’m meant to do of course ;0)). Thank you again, with love, Bethan

Beautiful wonderful expression.. I had several Hawaii affirmations arise yesterday, and then to come home late from work and find this lovely article that REALLY speaks to me. Reaffirming our essences that are so deeply heart felt. Starting my life over in a so to speak way, and becoming familiar again. Im still processing internally, but if I was to think outside externally, helping/healing I already feel would be right there for me.... Thank you again...this article flows in perfectly...

Thank you Trinity, there's so much content in your article, I'll have to read it a few times to really absorb it all! One thing that shone out for me was:

'It means we feel the energy with the deepest compassion, yet we can truly hold the space for another. In so doing, we reflect the light of benevolence, allowing true healing to take place.'

When this happens, we know we're learning to use ths 'gift' in a beneficial way. This happened twice for me today, with two clients. I could tangibly feel the energy in the room change into something so warm and so alive. For me, when I get a clear sense of the other person's negative ego agenda, I have to observe my own ego response to this and let go of any judgements that may arise. In the past this was almost impossible, but now I'm getting a bit better at it!

I agree, that it is a surprise that this ability may be seen as a 'gift'. My experiences as a child were often amazing and at times beautiful, as I was constantly tuned in to 'other' energies than my own. I assumed everyone felt the same. However, as I grew older and realised this was not the case, I began to doubt myself, leading to having a nervous breakdown at age 16. My fears opened the way for more negative energies to come in and I had some pretty awful times and eventually closed myself off from all other energy for about 15 years.

So on reflection I think it's important for adults to notice if children show signs of being sensitive to energies, and support them to feel comfortable and grow into their gift in a natural way.

One thing I notice nowadays, if I manage to set aside my own judgments and come from a place of unconditional acceptance towards another person, is that I don't have to 'do' anything. There seems to be a higher energy that guides conversation to say the most helpful things at the right time, or guides the healing energy if it's a 'hands on' session. How I love being able to get out of my own way, and wish I could do it more often, especially with family members!!

Our energies certainly do work together very harmoniously during the Openhand courses. It's a divinely given dance. Our gifts are remarkably complementary.

I love the way you describe the following:

Chris wrote: "An empath feels the field of another, attunes to it, but then gently resonates a higher frequency so that people can feel their own energy body more clearly. Since evolution happens by increased internal sensitivity, it means people can feel their own blockages and then unity consciousness constrained within them.

Once you can truly feel your blockage, then you already have the power to move the energy. This then allows your higher self consciousness simply to unfold. As more of us do this, so does the higher paradigm unfold.

Beautiful! I've noticed that this is what happens when Empaths really begin to harness the gift. The higher frequency resonance comes from an embodiment of the higher paradigm within, as if 'bringing it in' (to the lower paradigm). It then invites others to find the same within themselves, awakening dormant aspects of consciousness.

I certainly specialise in bypassing the intellect although I certainly appreciate the gifts of articulation and ability to annimate abstract concepts by use of words. These gifts work together hand in hand.

Chris wrote:"Once you can truly feel your blockage, then you already have the power to move the energy. This then allows your higher self consciousness simply to unfold. As more of us do this, so does the higher paradigm unfold."

If another is empowered to release their own blockages it creates a much greater potential for the ongoing unfolding process and more and more people to bring in and 'shine out' the higher paradigm. Bring it on!

this is such a wonderful article and not only what you say is so clearly put, but, like in your poetry, just with more of an intellectual focus, your heart and subtle feeling energies flow through it!

This is what I call real energetic teaching. Because what you say about how an Empath might be getting controversial messages from different layers of communications, teaching (facilitating) too happens on many levels.

I like when I feel, even after the article, what I also understand!
Oh, I wish you could be here in Budapest next week too

And I wish I had read this article some years ago, I had to learn this on my own expense: for long I was always told by helpers, friends, therapists that I have to learn to wall myself, "to find my boundaries in my work and life", and not doing so is not prefessional enought! But then I thought this was so difficult for a mother... (and not only with her own children): the kind of embodiment that happens in pregnancy in an energetic sense becomes a basic blueprint for life ...

and of course for some of us this is about something more... and I find this became one of the most useful tools in my work, and whenever I tried to shut it down, I became useles!

so professional or not, I just have to put up with the fact that this is how I function as a human, and as a mother and as a teacher-facilitator, and my solution has become exactly as you say: to withdraw on a regular basis to re-harmonise.

Bad are the days when I cannot do that!

CHRIS:
what you describe here (quote)...

"An empath feels the field of another, attunes to it, but then gently resonates a higher frequency so that people can feel their own energy body more clearly."

... is also something I had to tackle in recent months a lot! I suppose we all have to deal with it, but recently in my work the situation was such that the distance between harmonies was so great, that I really found it difficult to bridge it and keep my own frequency... I did not understand it at the time.

But than there was a helping situation: a nice group mantra singing session: Now here there's always a tendecy that the group is gradually lowering the pitch, so after like a couple of minutes we sing several tones lower, and if not careful as a sing-leader (who has to gently indicate to the group to raise the tone), teh whole thing might end up in a unsingable, funny low voice.

Here I just realised: this is all I have to do, in every area of my life: just keeping the tone!

Krishna, or Universal Consciousness plays his flute to entertain himself, and in Indian belief, this is how the World came about to be - and in my inner picture the flute is the human, with the chakras being the holes on the pipe, so we are all the instrument through which universal consciousness plays the Song of Life.

It is our human potential (and responsibility) to make sure that the song pouring through us is in tune...

Oh, I could write so much more, this really was a very inspirational article from both of you! Thank you!
with lots of love!
Reka

This thread feels divinely given, thank you Trinity for sharing your insights with such openess and honesty.

For me I it helps slot some of the pieces together in my rather ragged jigsaw puzzle. I have always been sensitive, and at the risk of upsetting or hurting people around me and through the fear of not wanting to be judged I have just soaked energy up without balancing the equation so to speak, basically
sacrificing my feelings and truth to keep the status quo. If I really look at it honestly I preferred to be liked by people at the cost of sacrificing how I really felt.
Being empathic I could read people very quickly and then tailor myself to fit in. I can look back and see situations where how I was being had a negative impact on the people around, and once I felt that it was like "right, make a note of that, negative impact, negative energy being directed, won't do that again"
So over time a controlling play it safe identity grew and limited my expression and confined my emotional expression.
Over the last few years I really felt as though I had been confronting my feelings. If something came up for me I would feel it and centre beyond it, but what I am seeing now, is how that there has been a degree of control around my feelings and a rationalizing of my emotions. It feels as though I have just gone round a big loop and I am back at the start again, although this time with the gift of insight. So now looking forward, I am scared. I am scared to be me and to where that might lead, I Know in my heart that it is the only way and what I truly yearn for, so I best get on with it.

Yes Trinity and Chris, I concur, fantastic article, wonderful and revealing words, very very insightful....as an Empath myself I find is very comforting and interesting reading another Empath's take on what it's like to be this way.....Being an Empath is both a great big "pain in the neck" literally and an incredible privilege....a huge challenge that never ceases to fascinate me in terms of the journey of discovery around being an Empath unfolds!!

Learning how to make being an Empath be my greatest gift and not my worst nightmare. Mind you I wouldn't be any other way and in learning how to manage energy and not take seriously the pain I feel in others I have discovered, yes my memory of past lives, I speak to dead people, I have channeled in the past.... and other psychic gifts, except to me they are normal acuities, but being here NOW is way mroe fascinating and exciting than delving into such things, for me at least ( HA HA) However in doing so, erasing the fear of death as our ultimate demise has been a huge relief....I can therefore literally say. It's OK, it's not like you are going to die!!

It has been a lifetime of "wondering" for me as I know I have felt divine ONE consciousness as an everpresent energy around me, speaking to me.....enabling me to know and feel an accuracy around truth so that I was fortunate enough to never take my parents, teachers, the priests, Nuns and even many gurus and swami's whose programs I undertook too seriously, although I did feel confused and disappointed that they tried to ply me with this untruth, I wondered always WHY they would you do that?? I studied NLP with the creators of NLP, Bandler and Grinder and yet knew where they were accurate in observing human behavior and where they weren't.....

There are many "wounds" which need healing) that Empaths carry as part of their huge disappointment with people around them and the world as they witness untruth occuring and others seeming falseness and,often their need to " go along" with rubbish, wait out the grind of misunderstanding in others until they are free enough as adults to live their own truth. I've come to know of course that often people really believe the silly stuff.

Under the grinding burden of the heavy weight of others and my own, "hurt" emotions, that I was unable to escape from using intellect alone, 25 years ago I began the journey of not detaching or being unattached to emotions/feelings, but the opposite....every feelings sensation evoked in my body, be it mine or someone else's that caused agitation or irritation I would become present to it, sit with the vibration of it, and over the years developed the ability to explore each emotion, talk to it, ask it where it came from, go back in time..when and how it was created....by so doing I was able to source the original deviation/separation of the individual, be it my own or anothers from truth/source....and in so doing sift through the wrong perspectives on reality and the truth....by moving back into the truth the pain was eased, well eventually dissipated completely to be replaced with understanding and wisdom.

I am OK with doing this with others energies that come to me for release/movement because each one is a fascinating story and I believe it wouldn't be in my radius if it didnt have something to tell me, this way I learn from others experiences without needing to go through the drama myself.

I am fascinated and so interested to hear from other Empaths their impression of what it is like for them too, to be this way! While the divine gift of giving movement to stuck emotion in others is wonderful......and I know that stuck emotions in others often seek movement through me and I am learning to say...sorry the egoic grip the instrument you are stuck in,will not allow movement at this time.....and obviously more time is required for it to loosen it's grip and I wish you well, it will happen, it has to happen. Isn't that what 2012 is all about!!

My fascination in being an Empath is not only about what we are impacted by, the energies around us, but that we also have huge impact on the energies around us.....the latest information on the massive electromagnetic field around the heart-mind, compared to the brain speaks volumes about how our energy as Empaths impacts on the world around us.....the biggest piece of information for me as an Empath was when I heard " You create your own Reality" as I had been witness to how I seemed to be able under certain circumstances that I have yet to master...to create alchemical moments of something out of literally nothing!!

I have constantly in my life felt so alone and so marginalized by the fact that those around me would look at me with crazy eyes thinking/saying....how did you do that? and with me having no idea myself....it just popped in carried on a wish I seemed to have made quite flippantly....Oh wouldn't it be nice if....bang...here hit is!! This has been frightening for me, you'd think not yes, you'd think I would be happy....but somehow I feel "threatening energy" projected at me when this happens, like you are not allowed to do that, ( memories of being burnt at the pyre as a witch) it's the same with happiness.....being connected to source and the one consciousness, I seem to always be able to go back to source to replenish and re-energise...so people have targetted me for energy as if I was a battery..........so many, so many scenarios about being an Empath that are amazingly both confusing and exciting....

So glad Trinity and Chris to be able to get on here and read the wonderfully insghtful comments and share my own experiences....being an Empath is exhausting and exhilarating, yes??!!

Sorry I haven't had time to put a photo up, am not that good at that side of things...but will........feel strangely relieved, like going to the Doctor and he says: Well dear, your condition is curable, it's an interesting one and it's called EMPATHY!! So now I'm sitting here waiting for the prescription...funny...we do have to laugh even though it's not a laughing matter!! It's spiritually exciting beyond the beyond!!

Dear Trinity, thanks for the wonderful article and the sharing of your own steps in tha process of mastering this gift.
I truly resonate with your words!
When I came to live in Budapest at the age of 18 I got seriously depressed because of what I experienced here: especially because of the so many homeless people on the streets and in the parks. I just could't close myself down so it caused me real pain to see how they lived. Then it got even worse so I got sedatives, antidepressants and suff like that. But after a few weeks I said no! I won't feel myself good because of chemicals. I went to a retreat for a weekend where we practiced diad technique, with bodywork and dance and meditation and I throw all these stuff into the dustbin - it was hard but gave me a huge freedom. It was the point in my life when I really started to walk on the Path, not only reading about it.

Reka, thanks!
I love the clarity of your writing.
'the kind of embodiment that happens in pregnancy in an energetic sense becomes a basic blueprint for life ...'
This is so true, that I could not help smiling when I read it.
I would be happy if you wrote articles in Hungarian as well to share your wisdom
And David, I greatly resonate with what you are talking about.
'Being empathic I could read people very quickly and then tailor myself to fit in.'
I clearly remember that at school as a little girl I just could not undersand why the others can't see what we are expected to do (even when we were not told exactly).
Sacrificing ourselves to be good as they expect..... I learnt quite quickly how to do it.
But now for a while I am working to find freedom again.

I really feel your post. I really resonate. Thankyou. I can see how I've done similar over the years. I used to so often seem to be trying to please, by harmonising etc, even without realising, because I could feel the energy of the situation and didn't want the disharmony that might be released. And for me I guess it might be easy for me to control feelings etc by over intellectualising! They're things I've been so used to doing, to deal with the world, that its still quite challenging to confront and move beyond them. Thanks for sharing, it felt truly 'Heart-ful'.

Thank you Trinity for this posting. I also recognise a lot of what you say.However,I dont feel that I have mastered this gift fully,and am sometimes distressed at how I seem to add to the confusion by mixing up others energies for my own.
I aiso resonate strongly with Davids comments about people pleasing to prevent disharmony,and controlling the environment because of an ability to understand what is really going on.
My question is Do empaths have a difficulty receiving?
I often feel uncomfortable receiving Love.I am really so touched that someone has been sensitive enough to see what I need that I find myself in tears and feeling exposed.

What a beautiful sharing. Your words flow like a gentle mountain stream as they dance through my soul. It's surely an energy through and beyond your words that I feel. You and I feel like such a beautiful mirror to one another, with so many similar realisations. Such also is the joy and awareness that comes from being a mother.

I will dearly miss not being in Budapest next weekend on this rare occassion where geography deems it an impossibility.

I enjoyed reading your description of Krishna/Universal Consciousness and the flute sounding the different notes. This I really resonate with, fitting so well also with the sounding of a vibrational note in order to unravel and unwind clogged energy.

Kata,

Thank you for sharing. I always find your writing inspiring. I love the inner determination to break through the layers that would otherwise hold you back, even though at times, like us all, it is very challenging.
Keep shining sister!

Welcome to Openhandweb Ursula. I am pleased that you are finding this article and sharings of support. You share a great example of what I know many Empaths experience. I do understand. Keep tuning in...

It warmed my heart to read your honest sharing here. Empaths are so often diplomatic peace makers and seek to harmonise the energy of a situation. There is a deep and resounding truth in this, although at a human level it most often comes out in a distorted fashion, at ones own expense. You so wonderfully describe this denying and surpressing of ones own energy for the sake of perceived external peace.

It's a form of self protection in order to not feel the energy of others (unless it is positive or neutral, which is fine). If being true to ourselves risks upsetting the apple cart, then the come back may not be pleasant. Although people are entitled to feelings too. An Empath often sturggles to manage the energy, esepcially when directed at them.

The only problem is that this denial is stored within and has to come out sooner or later. It becomes quite destructive internally, effectively keeping the soul imprisioned, locked away.

I have the deepest respect that you are able to be honest about this. Such honesty feels like a critical step in the process of breaking free of the inner prison. For everyone!

I would say that many Empaths do have difficulty receiving 'Love'. Although, it's not a trait unique to Empaths. It's a human trait.

Usually the inability to receive Love happens in people who are actually not able to Love themselves. Once we learn to Love and respect ourselves and walk a path aligned with this, we find it much more natural to give and receive in equal measure. It's like a universal reciprocal feedback loop.

I feel to add here to make a distinction between empathy with sympathy which in my observation can sometimes get confused.

Empathy is a truly profound gift that will only really emerge from many dedicated years - lifetimes - of inner searching and deep confrontation of our feelings. Of course sympathy is quite different, being a much more surface level emotional reaction to events and circumstances to which we may still be attached.

A true empath can feel someone else's pain as their own,
but they don't own it!

It's the ability to sit with someone in their pain with no need to take it away. Whereas someone who is being sympathetic to someone else's needs, tends to go into the pain with them, which can be limiting at the energetic level...

when someone is stuck in a hole, a sympath will get in the hole with them and share the burden, which effectively says "it's so bad, that you're not able to carry it yourself".
An empath will also get in the hole, but in the darkness, softly shine the light on the steps of the ladder, helping them feel their own way out of the darkness.

I regularly observe the difference in spiritual work. Someone goes into a deeply painful process and their facilitating partner might want to take the pain away because they themselves have become uncomfortable with it. But the discomfort is then felt at an energetic level by both and because there's retraction from the pain, it makes the pain worse - it makes it 'taboo'. The pair are then only really able to deal with the process at an intellectual and emotional level.

When we're truly being empathic, we KEEP softening into the pain, confronting anything that arises and going deeply into it. The importance is to recognise the potential for our own internal retraction but not doing that. Instead the importance is to keep opening into it and resonating a vibrational frequency that then softly activates the pain in the other. In so doing, the empathic approach says: We give permission to deeply process by exemplifying being in the pain too.

It's only when we become deeply intimate with our pain that we can truly process and release it.

So I'd say the gift of empathy is not to be made light of. It's a skill which requires a great depth of experience and professionalism, integrated with profound self honesty. I'd say it's the pinnacle of the healing/self realisation facilitation process.

Trinity, there have been so many important posts on the Openhand web site. They have inspired me, challenged me, caused me to question. Your original post here was at first interesting, but on subsequent reads and as you expanded on the theme, it was much more affecting.
David, your post was like a punch in the stomach with your openness and honesty and a mirror for me. Since my awareness of my spiritual awakening I have been trying to find my true emotions that have been so long suppressed. There is an energy in your words that struck me strongly.
I have always struggled to fit in and sat on the periphery, and in school, work and social activities I would be like a chameleon trying to blend in. In larger groups of people I find the energy disorientating, and would find myself unbalanced. I developed a protection by pushing down my emotions, trying to maintain the status quo. In contrast to when I am in quiet places like in nature or with people one-on-one or small groups (and with particularly with awakened people) I have a connection and feel I am myself. I know I have face my fears, keep going deeper and through my distortions, and just writing this is causing a waves of emotion to course through me.
Trinity and David, thank you so much. In the same way a piece of music or song can seem so personal, affecting, and inspiring to the listener, your words are so much more than mere words, and have touched me personally and profoundly.
With much love, Mark

Maybe I didn't fully understand the definition, but as I see it, we all are more or less empaths, in a sense that we all, deep inside, feel the energies around and are affected by them. And nobody can shut it off, but can deny or own them.

To me, after exploring this for a long time, it has to do with sensitivity and resolution. Which means how I can feel subtle energies and how well I can see various energies in the field and not just one big hybridized cloud of noise.

I never complained about being an empath because I didn't know I am one most of my life. I, along with people surrounding me, thought I am crazy and unstable, that all this is my stuff. And when I found out most of it is not hhhh, I already knew more or less how to help myself. What helps me is having my quality time with myself, yoga and music (I pick the music that balances the effect).

I must say that, also, I am still exploring it... I don't see that anything I might see 'outside' is happening for nothing.

For example, with many states people around me were experiencing, I later myself went through very similar experiences. It helped me recognize: "ah! I know this one", and not to get scared by it. So the same with energies.

It's funny, but I feel like I am on training. I can be in a more and more noisy environment, in some crazy web of dense and light energies, see them all, and keep in my field, keep the balance. It feels like meditating, but without special environment settings.

Also with this developing ability I feel I need to rest less then before, to clean my own field less, because things don't get stuck there like before. I work only with energies that I feel I am to work with and let all the rest be and flow through me. I just notice.

In general, for me, probably the most important and helping thing is to relax, not to resist, to watch the rationalisation (this can cause more trouble than the energy itself), just watch it all, experience and "answer the call", when I feel some inner or external action is required.

There is still a lot to learn, and I can be very clumsy sometimes But I also don't feel bad about it at all. I am not supposed to be perfect in one day, just like Trin is saying.

Thanks, everybody for the comments.

And Chris, thanks for the great reminder. I work so much with it, so I am glad to see it put in words so well and to be focused another time.

Chris, my sense is that you are talking about an accomplished Empath who has achieved a powerful level of conscious awareness of the energetic implications of being able to "feel" the energy around them. This is someone who has thoroughly healed their own wounds, someone who has befriended pain as a beautiful path to wisdom, someone who has cleared energy, in respect to choices made at a time when there wasn't the ability to discriminate between what they were feeling or what someone else was feeling....as an Empath I can remember many instances where I could feel emotions projected at me, but thought they were mine.......this can potentially cause damage for the psyche!!

I would say for example that my mother was an Empath with a very low level of discrimination around what she was feeling and so she would try to relieve herself of the energetic discomfort she was picking up by helping the other person and then switch into a resentful mode, wanting to almost punish the other person for burdening her with their "troubles" feelings..........she had no control over her empathy and to her it seems a curse!!

My sense also is that Empaths, having the ability to feel emotion deeply, therefore give emotion....which is energy in motion, the room to move....Empaths enable the movement of emotive energy and so, emotions seek them out in order to achieve movement....hence people seek empaths out to tell them their stories....to get the feeling to move, this can be disturbing and takes years to get a handle on!!

To me an Empath feels emotion as a more deeply attuned energy which streams through all living things...the ONE consciousness...whereas a sypathetic person feels sorrow for perhaps more third dimensional events.....loss of a job...physically based events as opposed to the deeply emotional pain that comes from souls separation from source.

I am sure that Empaths are so sensitive because of as you say, lifetimes of inner delving and yet, in my journey I have learned that the more accomplished or attuned you become spiritually, while the rewards are enormous, the pitfalls are many and conscious awareness and concentration requires a level of hyper vigilance in order to stay aligned with right use of will. These Empaths you speak of are very very accomplished in their awareness of energy and I know I would certainly seek to reach that place!

I found your post really insightful, and agree with your perspective of how well an empath can work with and understand energy relative to their own spiritual evolution.
I see how my understanding and ability to work with energy deepens the more I work through my stuff.

Hi David.....Absolutely with you...totally and completely, my whole story as an Empath changed the very day I made the commitment to mine deep into and excavate my own history and heal, reveal and know the truth about ME!!!....being an Empath can be a nightmare of confusion, misunderstanding, and very real pain...not being able to come to grips with how hurtful people can be...getting lost in their stuff...feeling so confused and conflicted....how does a child handle/cope, having a deeper sense of truth and what's real while being confronted with adults all telling various versions of unworkeable falseness. What to do? what to do?...sitting there....waiting....knowing, that won't work for me!!!

WE live in a world where the authority powers work persistently towards the shutting down and cutting us off from our true power, so that the masses becomes ant like, disempowered and willing to be slaves to work/labour treadmill, and the whole damn mess/system of materialistic goals. Knowing what I've always known has caused me to feel like I was in "hiding" ( an enemy of the state) somehow with a gift or treasure that I need to keep under wraps.I have in my life been able often to focus and create "stuff" easily but the unfortunate thing is it attracts attention...how did you do that? So I hang back, I wait, I diminish me.....and my power not sure how to protect it.

I think it was Breda who said....Do Empaths have difficulty receiving LOVE? Well yes and no, LIFE itself gifts us empaths abundantly...but people often try to cut us off. My sense of this is that the challenge for Empaths is to always KNOW, ALIGN with and DOCK into mothership so to speak....we always need to know it is source or life itself that loves us, feeds us, resources our lives and others are simply instruments in a process. Because we are so hyper sensitive to LOVE, we have to love/appreciate the source of another person, their WHOLE connection and not their (separated self) Egoic ploys, as non Empaths sense an Empaths vulnerability and will in the wink of an eye, manipulate and manuevre if they can.

People subconsciously know they HAVE to move their stuck feelings or die ( cancer, heart disease, strokes, MS etc etc etc) ...so, they will target empaths to move their stuff for them. Empaths have to know this is happening and will always happen and learn, learn, learn to love the soul of the person they are with, and recognise when EGO games are in play and remain unattached, not detached, unattached to the ploy and connected to the soul!

And in answer again to Chris, Empaths are the Wounded Healers that Jung spoke about....we have war wounds we first need to heal within ourselves to be able to feel anothers pain, separate from their pain, which you can only do if you've healed your own.....and feel into the depths of that persons divinity connection.

SO I totally agree with you David....for an Empath it is critically important that they turn their attention to self revelation....know thyself/to thine own self be true!! For me it meant FACING my Deepest FEARS....the Overwhelming at times emotions that I was afraid would swallow me up alive!! So I taught myself...I have this acronymn I created F.E.A.R....Face, Embrace, Accept, Relase.......I agree with Chris that an Empaths life is one of intense and deep personal discovery which not only consumes this life but must have also done so in the many before....and evolution becomes more and more a finely tuned process...like the differnce between being a concert painist and a kid bashing on the keys. Buffer zones between thinking and creating are much less defined for Empaths. They moreso walk on tightropes and are listening to, in the main to their own inner voice....no voice moreso that my own gives me reliable information....now the REAL world out there would say that is a dangerous place to be, listening to your own opinion moreso than anything else....crazy stuff...and it is crazy being an Empath but man, how rich a life is it!!!

I love this journey of discovering my "condition" as an Empath...I've always interpreted myself as having an Indigo Child nature...love the sharing of experiences...thankyou again Trinity for getting the ball rolling on this topic.

In LIght and Love and here's to enjoying the roller coaster ride called EMOTION...energy in motion. Ursula XOXOX

Yes indeed - thanks for your impassioned sharing. Several things stand out from your post for me - having the courage to go deep into the pain - there's no other way.

And I love this...

"So I taught myself...I have this acronymn I created F.E.A.R....Face, Embrace, Accept, Release."

It's exactly how I came up with "openway". Being drawn into the pain, but then also figuring out how to 'walk the tight rope' (as you put it), finding that find balance between exploring it but not wallowing in it, delving deeply into it but not being identified with it.

I really want to thank you for bringing voice to the difference between empathy and sympathy. It mirrors exactly what I began with, yet phrased in a different way. To me, sympathy arises out of being attached to the emotion of another - owning it for ourselves. The way to master being an Empath is to rise above this and walk the blade edge. It's like the inevitability of feeling it all, whilst walking a tightrope. It's being the eye of the storm. It's holding your centre whilst a tsunami of energy sweeps through you.

Yulia, you suggest that we are all Empaths. I can see why you would say that. We are all souls, so by nature at a particular level, we are all empaths, clairvoyant, telepathic, clairsentient, cairaudient and have a plethora of pyschic gifts at our disposal. The thing is though, each of us has a unique configuration and some of these will come naturally to us as a gift, much more so than others. Some of us are divinely given to act through particular gifts. Everyone could be empathic - that's not the same as being an "Empath" (in the sense that I mean it here at least).

The wonderful thing is though, whether you are an Empath or someone who has a tendency to empathise, all of the above is relevent. We can use the same guidance and support to discover our true selves and really begin to shine through.

i can see there might be a real place for 'empaths' in diplomacy, perhaps there are already. I imagine 'politics' means something like 'representing the people', though I'm not sure.

I think there's both gifts and challenges in this. There've been a number of occssions where I've been on the edge of or observing an argument or debate, been asked for my opinion and honestly not known what it was, because I could feel the other energy/opinions so strongly. I could see the truth in both sides, but people didn't really want to hear that. I see that as a gift (to see both truths and so find 'common ground') but also it can be confusing if we're not pretty aware of our own feelings, or distracted by who 'shouts' the loudest!
Then expressing what we feel to express...

I also have what you describe happen quite often, to much frustration. Two people are fighting for seemingly opposite sides, but to me they are both right, although not always expressing themselves very kindly. It is like each person is one half truth of the whole truth, but if you tell them that they would look at you like you're nuts, and then go on fighting.

I feel very privileged to be a part of this forum of Empath's "talking" and, in place of appreciation for the opportunity to read others comments, let them sink in, and express my own experiences with being an Empath.

Thankyou for welcoming me here Trinity, thankyou David for feeling into the insight within my words. Thankyou Breda for moving with the motion in my expression and savoring the balm, thankyou Chris for enjoying my acronym and most of all for feeling the passion in my words, I loved SOMEONE's words, they did feel very much like someone who has left turmoil behind and found peace and softness in being an Empath......thankyou everyone for sharing beautiful and inspiring words.....I believe we Empaths, being so feeling based in how we experience life, the world and others. We need very much to find understanding about ourselves and how we function...how best to use energy to our benefit without putting up defensive walls to block the streaming of emotion through us....and as it was said in Genesis, in the beginning, was the WORD....words are how we bring our knowing and our feeling, our intuition into fruition in the materal world of substance...they matter and how we use them matters....very much!!!

My sense Ben, is that an Empath can feel the true intention behind words irrespective of what the words or loudness, urgency, appear to portray, just the intent behind words will create it's counterpart energy, not the word or the focus, the intent creates!! So it behooves us as Empaths to speak our truth for the sake of it, just because, irrespective of what result or reaction that evokes....just speak truth and let that do the rest!!

I think TRUTH has a kind of gnawing energy in it...it gnaws away, it pokes, it prods, it returns, it pushes, nudges..until it surfaces, in that we can have faith!!

If I am to summarize my challenge as an Empath it has been. Being able to heal and help myself in most if not all my situations because, I see myself as creator of it all, so I merely have to ask...wondering/curious, feel into it, why did I do that? Always the answer makes perfect sense!! I can see beyond, and feel into why someone else, close or even friends, anyone really, is in the predicament they are in....ie how they created their dilemma/pain!!

My frustration ( ironically) at their inability to receive my "answers/solutions", make use of my help, has itself been the hook/access point, whereby they were able to gain a pathway into my energy stream and push their stuck emotions through my body!!! People have availed themselves of my help over and over...just to see me fail to help them and with no intention of shifting themselves....fascinating dynamic...hoping to have me feel "failure" Which doesn't help them or me! When I have walked away, I have felt guilt about my ability to create ease and grace against their struggle....again I provide a hook or access point for toxic waste streaming through my system. Amazing dynamic!!

Understanding all of the above has been a lifetime(S) mission for me, gaining wisdom through understanding my own creations and then using that wisdom to NOT interfere in others "egoic/drama games" while being YET, open to feeling into the resonance of one who is willing to leave the games behind and open to a higher paradigm.Discrimination without Judgement!! I remember reading recently how a person clinging to their games will feel you as a demon when you seek to poke at their resistances or lift their energy beyond their readiness to shift, whereas a being willing, desiring and open to change will experience you lifting their resonance as a godsend.....Empath's while paradoxically often feel out of control, have to let go of control to be in control...if that makes sense...let go into source and knowing....Everything is OK!!

Thankyou every one of US, for this beautiful sharing space of delight!! Ursula.

Clearly you write with a good deal of healing experience - fascinating world isn't it

I get the sense we offer two opposites of the same mirror - how frequently that happens! I can be empathic, but I am not an empath. My roll is as a catalyst. So this part of your sharing describes a good deal of many previous encounters...

I remember reading recently how a person clinging to their games will feel you as a demon when you seek to poke at their resistances or lift their energy beyond their readiness to shift, whereas a being willing, desiring and open to change will experience you lifting their resonance as a godsend

How true! It defines the life of a catalyst perfectly. I've had to discover volumes about diplomacy, yet I still feel like I'm frequently bouncing a wayward basket ball through a minefield. In your words, I see the diplomat bouncing admirably!

So if I can reflect something to you, it would be in these words...

"My frustration ( ironically) at their inability to receive my "answers/solutions", make use of my help, has itself been the hook/access point, whereby they were able to gain a pathway into my energy stream and push their stuck emotions through my body!!! People have availed themselves of my help over and over...just to see me fail to help them and with no intention of shifting themselves....fascinating dynamic...hoping to have me feel "failure" Which doesn't help them or me! When I have walked away, I have felt guilt about my ability to create ease and grace against their struggle....again I provide a hook or access point for toxic waste streaming through my system. Amazing dynamic!!"

I'm sure you don't mind me saying, but from the perspective of the catalyst, people don't 'push stuck emotions' through ones body, rather some degree of attachment draws them in. Or at least holds them in once they've entered.

I find that sometimes I can be the greatest help when I push the emotions back - but it's not always pretty - something I've accepted and come to terms with.

Thanks Chris for your insightful words and indeed.....no part of me minds anything you say...catalyze to your hearts content!! ....It's all just more territory to cover which I've always known, the more of the landscape/emotion~scape you conquer and come to know the more, presents itself to be explored.....and that's how I was feeling after I read your post.....oh great...more to know!!

Indeed you are right...people do not push their stuck emotions into you.....unless some part of the recipient of said energy has some attachment to it...and indeed for me it's the frustration of knowing I am an accomplished healer, both of my own and others woundings, and yet I can not help this person who continues to bemoan their circumstances, cycling endlessly through their story...........I'd love to know what your version of pushing the emotion back is....and your experiences with that. I am fascinated.....although I've had a little experience with it and yes, it hasn't been pretty!! Something I've probably avoided but perhaps shouldn't.

I only just came back inside from an amazing experience with a very close person who has often successfully pushed stuck emotions through my body.........I say that again because while my accomplished/evolved self knows this is nonsense...my " poor me" self will say it till she's OVER this part of the journey....anyway, we were in conversation and I began to feel shaky inside...unsure...almost heart pounding and racing, while remaining engaged in the conversation I took my focus into the "feeling energy" in my body and all I heard was...." here is comes" and indeed, minutes later the "game" began....I felt myself stand outside looking in and heard my inner voice say...AHA, there it is, see, the game, now step aside...I understand and see where this is designed to hook me in, but like a talented bull fighter I'm already into the Ole....step aside and slide away....so beautiful! I walked away from the conversation chuckling and thinking...YAY, grocked it...scott free!! I felt myself watch the game with an understanding as to the pay off this person was seeking and felt into the absence of judgement on my part, realising, well if this is what you need to do, be my guest. So yes, perhaps a bit more of the attachment within me was released.

Thankyou so much for this conversation, enjoying it immmensely...Ursula

How do I 'push the emotions back'? Well it's a bit like your poignant bull fighter analogy (although Aikido resonates more as a metaphor for me personally). And in truth, I'm not really pushing anything, although I do acknowledge sometimes I have to watch the tendency to add a little extra unnecessary energy

So when it works well for me, the other side might be pushing against me. For a while I let them push, just long enough to feel their own resistance and then.... step out of the way. If I've been effective, they'll see they were pushing all along. It frequently comes with a touch of projection though!

Let me see if I can locate the catalyst point in your sharing...

'anyway, we were in conversation and I began to feel shaky inside...unsure...almost heart pounding and racing, while remaining engaged in the conversation I took my focus into the "feeling energy" in my body and all I heard was...." here is comes" and indeed, minutes later the "game" began'

So let me ask you this, exactly who was it that 'took your focus into the energy body?' And was the 'game' not already well in play by that point? I ask because when one is totally present, my observation is that there's no one controlling anything - so I suspect a subtle strategy might be in play (at the energy level).

What it could be pointing to, is an invitation not to go into 'the energy body' at this point (which I sense to be the Openhand equivalent of the "ray 2" surrendered empath attunement), but rather responding more immediately to the core truth at the heart of the pounding nervousness - the greater immediacy of the ray 1 warrior. What is the warrior inviting at this point? Could it be to step out of the way sooner?

Hi Chris.....It's a juggling game isn't it....how much of the play is learning the wisdoms, healing the past, building the future, being present as much as you need to in order to evolve self and shift the paradigmm, and then getting on with the life I have here/now. I move myself into the dance to the degree I am now capable of holding resonance with, and also just "doing the best I can with what I know to date" Relishing each step of advancement where I know I am further along than I was a moment ago.

My real passion is understanding how I create my own reality and it implies I come to grips with all I have created to date....

I have a memory of a past life, at my moment of death I am in wonder( terrified) as to, Why those I helped and healed, are killing me? Why those I love have betrayed me? Why are they afriad of what could save them from their misery? If I could only explain ( justify) that how I did what I did was normal for me, and possible for them. So that, it seems has been the template for this life and I am making progress moving beyond it.

You wrote: Clearly you write with a good deal of healing experience - fascinating world isn't it!!

So in this life NOW....my constant challenge is to know my power on the one hand....and then understand/know that moment, with that person, where I have none....am not able to do a thing ( other than be fully me) and need to allow it to be what it is. I need to be out of the way from the get~go, knowing that....Aaaaah yes!!

The "close" person is my 89 year old mother and already I have stepped out of the way to the degree it's absolutely possible, without walking away from the lifelong choice I made to have her as a force in my learning. So for me, I choose staying with it...to get as much as I intended for myself out of the role we're playing, the script I wrote and how the story has developed, so far. I've noticed in my life, that when it's over....they walk away!! If it's not over and I walk....I meet it elsewhere, again as it's not finished!

That "little bit of extra energy" you speak of, yes, gosh do I know that....feeling I've added a bit of sting into the equation that was indeed uncessary, my human self would say....Well what did they expect!! Letting go of the fact that there is NO injustice, understanding, all is as it needs to be and no-one is in control....yet we all are powerful beyond measure....but how to exact and be with that power in the most marvellous way, that's the drum!!

Why do we feel obliged to help others and save the world?...if we feel that way!! It's an interesting conundrum, one I am still working my way through......coming closer and closer to the idea of just being with ALL of who I am and unfraid to speak it all out loud, making my abnormality normal...and perhaps, doing that for it's own sake..is enough, more than enough!! If I can be part of that 10% with the highest ideals, being the BEST of me,with unshakeable faith..this energy....it will itself rush unabated through the other 90%...science now acknowledges that this is in fact how it is....as long as the 10% have an absence of disbelief and so I stay with it till I understand!! Until my knowing cannot be shifted, now it is deep within me and who I have become!!

In the end it's just ourselves we have to free, each of us responsible for freeing ourselves.

Dear Chris and other patient readers, I do apologize for taking up so much space....and do in all humility ask you for your forgiveness if it feels like this is too much!!

I suppose I have always, all my life felt like I am too much anyway so here goes!!

After posting the above Chris I had a BFO!! That's my acronym/term for a Blinding Flash of the Obvious....which like lightening just flashed into my consciousness and feels like IT!!

I hope it helps those other Empaths out there as it explains to me how important, and critical it is for Empaths with their ability to feel so deeply into energy to DECIDE where they will focus. Focus focus focus!!!Intention and focus!!

I think I just got the answer to a lifelong QUESTION that has plagued me, my whole life. I know ( in my heart) that everyone around, is a master alchemist and magician and, it feels to me like this is the drum, the KEY, literally the key to freedom is knowing that absolutely without a moments hesitation, and then enacting the magic of that knowing….

And YET, the paradox also is that “telling” someone they are in a prison of their own making, that it is an illusion and a party trick, someone just played on them, that they got lost in, immediately creates sufficient focus within me to take me into the chains ( they are bound by) myself, suddenly I am there, with them....in a strange world, and I feel the reality, the metallic pain of the shackles on my wrists and ankles, the hard impenetrability of the bars of this prison that hold me in, ( who saw Shawshanck Redemption, Andy doesn't forget he is intrinsically free and never loses hope) and yet, the prison is REAL.

Because I am an Empath....suddenly I know their world, and am so in the feeling, to the degree that I am now also held captive!! It’s a bit like in the movie “What Dreams May Come”…don’t look at the vortex or black hole as merely looking, with a feeling of sorrow at man's plight, this will be enough to pull you in and how much of a challenge is that for an empath who feels it all……

I need to BE empathic towards only the understanding that this is completely real for them….Totally and completely REAL and yet, even in light of the fact that as an Empath I can FEEL their “energetic resonance” with their imprisonment situation, my attunement and use of my WILL, must be with the larger more expansive and final TRUTH of the energy of freedom!! With the unifield field of ONE consciousness that encompasses it all……….

Which brings me to finally finally, understanding a series of experiences I had at age 16, 17 and 18… There on several occasions I had that grand moment that the mythologist, Joseph Campbell speaks of, the “Peak Experience” 3 of them that blew my mind out of the stratopshere!! Always in a natural setting, mountain top, ocean, snow. I was being shown the expansive universe and taken on cosmic journeys beyond my wildest dreams or my capacity to comprehend and then, just as suddenly dropped back into my ordinary world ( some of my knowing still intact) and then, immediately, having to contend with being several times placed in situations where I was being brought to justice, hauled over the coals for deeds I had not committed and was totally innocent, it was a very weird experience..., for example, one was plagiarism at University in a final paper, it’s then I found out I had a photographic memory, try explaining that to the Dean.

As an Empath, we have to KNOW that everyone is FREE….in every REAL way, other than how they perceive it themselves, this life entrainement is a trick...of perception, it's not real.... and if that is true, then they each know the way out…, we all do......the greatest gift I can give as an “Empath" is seeing that everyone/they/you are FREE

Now here's the trick in the illusion....If I try to free YOU out of my knowing and not from yours. Then immediately, without warning, I am sucked into the vortex of imprisonment myself, having acknowledged the ties that bind and having therefore engaged at that level of resonance in the illusion which now, has become my reality, in a millisecond it happens...Mother Theresa apparently said before her death....I never once felt god by my side!! I wonder why?

So in those early years 16,17,18 I was being prepared, I remember feeling in each of the meetings I was called into to explain myself....I sort of sat there in a daze and didn't engage in the story, didn't justify, did nothing but sit there looking perplexed, what are you guys on about??....I didn't buy the "prison".....I was still too much in my "dream state" and not awake to their accusations, if I remember correctly they just let me go..I walked away ..like Eric Erickson who hypnotised the jury seeking to find him guilty in regards to his "discovery" and use of hypnotism... obviously their accusation did not find fertile soil in my consciousness...they must have not had anything to take a hold of.....I wasn't hypnotised by their premise...I just sat there being my free self..daxed yes, but free yes!! ..like the song. Everybody is Free…..to feel good!!

So I apologize if this makes no sense at all...this story and yet I wanted to risk looking like a geek to tell you my herstory, it's mine, it's true and it's soooooooo REAL for me, Chris.........YOU are a catalyst for SURE....YOU propelled me into this realization and I am eternally grateful.

but the English title of the film I'm thinking of right now is Wings of Desire by director Wim Wenders (1987).

Let me "impose" on you dear Empath community a bit of artistic detour over this fascinating discussion which deeply inspired me in the last couple if days. it is kind of my saying thanks for all the sarings (and Ursula: it is a pleasure to read your mature words, special thanks!)

I thought of this film again because in fact the musical video I posted earlier is taking its basic motive and idea from here, and here it is so much more subtly presented...

This film was a HUGE influence when I first saw it - at the age of 16 (at a private screening, since I come from a film director family and Wim Wenders is a friend of my parents.)

With the openness of a teenager I totally fell into the happiness of -for the first time- seeing my oversensitive self mirrored in the long coated figures "listening in" all the other peoples's heads and thoughts...

They are angels... in 80-ies underground West Berlin style... long coat, ponytail, Bruno Ganz... ha-ha I love it!

They hear people's thoughts, but people do not see them. They see and feel and sometimes give untangible hugs and then walk on...

But they do not sense... this is why the film is black and white up till the point when ONE of the angels, after falling in love with a circus artist, decides to fall from heaven and become mortal: then the film becomes coloured, he tastes his own blood, a wound from falling, he feels love and happiness - and he feels pain...

Sometimes I wonder, maybe, Empaths are an in-between, "not-noticing" humans, and not sensing angels...

But you know what? Just enjoy the clips... I hope you will and don't mind. Art can say moe than words...

First short extract is like 1,5 mins, the famous subway scene, and if you liked that than definitely check out the 5-min clip of the Library scene...

Vielen Dank Reka......surreal is the best way I see right now to describe what it is to be an Empath....these clips are wonderfully enlightening....especially apt for me in an deeply experiential way, as I spoke German ( understand Hungarian) as a child....after 6, going to School in Australia I only spoke English...so as I watched both clips, my memory of the German language was bleeding through like meaning, from another dimension or part of me I thought I forgot.........and enhancing the wonderful understanding........I had an experience only moments ago speaking to a friend in pain....after yesterday's shift of recognition.....as I spoke my throat began to feel sore and I asked the energy and it said..." back off, move away" so I realized my words were hitting a wall rather than streaming into a consciousness willing to allow the free flow...so I sat back in my seat and sent love....all was well!! Yes perhaps we empaths already have one foot in the realm of universal ONE consciousness and, with the other foot we sense the energy of those around us who feel separate from what we sense so clearly!! And all we can do is send that love and like the man in the train, those who sense it will decide to come back home to the light as we ourselves once did.

Maybe we always have to keep our weight on the foot resting in divine love, stream our knowing of the truth of life and very carefully step into the 3D realm...totally aware and with strong focussed thoughts on where we truly are.

Reka, the movie " Wings of Desire" is still available in DVD form, I will get it as well as the sequel Wenders made in '93, Faraway, Close, the Hollywood remake of Wenders film was " City of Angels" with Nicholas Cage and Meg Ryan....I saw this movie several times and it touched me deeply....Love Ursula XO

I'm not familar with the term 'empath' but from reading the article I sigh - and say yes, yes but no thanks too. It's a scary proposition to try and help open people spiritually. I find that people just don't really want to go there, and when I find myself discussing the truth of a situation with someone -I can see in their eyes the doubt and the ego's narration. I think I'd rather hide out for as long as I can. Perhaps when those sensitivities have matured, it gets easier. I can't even get through the chit chat though, I recently found myself in a small talk situation and I couldn't find the rythumn of the conversation, I started to go dizzy and just wanted to run home. I laughed to myself and thought what use am I! I love nothing more than being alone, but probably that's not the point of this. Trinity - these words couldn't speak louder to me:

'Because of the tendency for people to hide the full story, or try to control the situation, an empath will tend to feel a huge inner conflict or inability to process the enormity of the engagement. One of the main problems for Empaths is the lack of transparency and honesty in the world and the consequent resentment of having to process all the energy that is not in full view'

- I do feel resentment at times, sometimes I feel like telling people of all the under currents I'm feeling from them and leaving it on thier lap to sort out. But I guess that's not ideal

It may come as a surprise, but I can honestly say that I never try and help people open spiritually. If I do help, it comes from a naturally arising 'Soul to Soul' connection. When there is nothing to prove or nothing to convince people of, the engagement is determined by what is being called for on a soul level.

Attachment to our perspective (or story) when sharing with others, can cause quite a bit of hindrance, especially for an empath.

As soon as I sense that I am having a conversation with an ego, I lose all interest and I have no impulse to engage. My Soul may however, guide me to withdraw gracefully (although at times perhaps abruptly too; I can never quite tell as every situation is unique).

Kd1 wrote: "I do feel resentment at times, sometimes I feel like telling people of all the under currents I'm feeling from them and leaving it on their lap to sort out. But I guess that's not ideal."

It might help to contemplate that if you are still feeling this way, then you have partially drawn the situation to you to highlight your own blockages. When I was first coming to terms with being empathic, owning my own blockages was a very important part of the process. If you are feeling resentment, then there will certainly be a hidden recess of that bubbling away within you somewhere that you are being invited to work with. You can only really feel the pain of resentment if it is within you already.

A basic way to work out if you have any blockages yourself is: if you can't see the situation entirely clearly and feel out-of-sorts, then you very likely have something to work on yourself.

When energy flows through you unhindered, you will experience it as a gift.

"Let yourself be open and life will be easier.
A spoon of salt in a glass of water makes the water undrinkable.
A spoon of salt in a lake is almost unnoticed."

When feeling overwhelmed by energies, it can be very tempting to close down and tighten. The energy we are trying to avoid, might then seem so much more overpowering. Instead try being expansive and notice how perception shifts.

New to this blog.
Love everyone comments and insights. Focus & intention is the first key to knowing your own energy. When you focus on Love as your intention, you know your energy .. so when you sense energy other than unconditional love, you've picked it up from someone. Then you can do the F.E.A.R. thing. Everyone can have enlightenment - you just have to ask for it and you're set on that path. All paths lead to GOD.

Patti, I feel that your intention is lovely although I have to disagree with your summarisation of 'empathy'.

We might well feel many things that are not 'unconditional love' that are OUR OWN emotions. I am not sure how you can conclude that

"when you sense energy other than unconditional love, you've picked it up from someone."

This feels more like blaming the outside world for everything that we are feeling, rather than taking ownership for what is going on inside of ourselves (which is where true self realisation arises from). This is one of the issues that empaths may face... wrapped up in a false-self identy of 'love' because it is unbearable to face anything painful. The way to fully self realise is to fully take ownership of our emotions and pain.

Even as a heightened empath, when we feel strong energy from outside of ourselves that is causing conflict and suffering within us, it is because (and this is the most important part)

THERE IS SOMETHING INSIDE OF OURSELVES THAT WE NEED TO RESOLVE OR LET GO OF

It might be anger, resentment, frustration, pain or any dark emotion, but the only reason the energy is a problem is because of what is within OURSELVES. Even if we are picking it up from someone else. We have attracted it to us like a magnet in order to see our true selves.

Being a 'self realised empath' means that you will still feel the energy BUT there is no attachment to it. One thing I can say for certain is that enlightenment does not unfold by denying our darkness.

Since the course last week i'm wandering on an "interesting" stretch of the path shall i say.

It seems that truly diving into feeling dissolves "me". I always used to "think" that i am more of an intelectual person - whatever that would be

Turns out now that i "am" nothing but a translucent jar that the world passes through. Ideally this will allow for just as much resonance to experience something, relate and express. Less ideally something will "stick" or most likely be stuck already. An emotion, a feeling. Now where it gets really fascinating is on opening into those sticky spots. Eventually hints, pictures will show up pointing to the causes of these tightnesses. And amazingly they are more often then not all but what i assumed they were. And more often than not, they are revealed in layers - one after another.

Just now, being back in the office after a week off with some of my beloved ones in Somerset, i am feeling the sediment in my belly area again being really agitated. Watching, softening and behold: there's a vibe from the internet / the computer underlying here. I am actually responding to the frequency that i am picking up from the (internet)world. Something to become awesomely okay with

Previously i assumed that this very stuck feeling had to do with resistance to the type of work i am doing or something along those lines and reasons like that may have been there in the past. But in all this sensitivity there is effectively something else going on that is more subtle, less obvious and yet has an incredibly strong effect on me. It is the constant stream of information that get passed on from computer to computer with all the related twists and turns.

Wow, incredibly strong

Love you all, and to be quite frank, the connection i am feeling to the souls gathered in this thread is particularly strong.

Certainly you are a strongly empathic soul having a profound exploration of your deepest beingness. I love the way describe yourself as a translucent jar that the world passes through :innocent:. Divine!

Those 'sticky spots' are indeed amazing gifts that point to the tightness that prevents us from unleashing our unbridle true and whole selves.

Keep feeling and keep allowing the translucent jar of surrender to unfold through deeper and deeper layers.
You are a truly divine being.

Thanks Trinity for the reply
I totally agree - if I experience outside reflecting back that has a negative connotation, then I let it flow through - the something could also be very lovely. I believe I'm long past my past, I don't have energies reflecting back much negativity anymore ... my life is very blissful .. maybe it's denial, I don't feel it is though.

Yes there is still identity. I still have to live in this world. LOL. But I don't feel separate from GOD at all. I feel this presence always. Perhaps my words are not conveying my feelings ... thats been an issue before in using the e-mail. Thanks Trinity and Chris for your comments. I really enjoy the web site.

Two more things "occurred" (God bless the quotation mark) to me to.-day.:

One - the great thing about being so sensitive is that it's actually very easy to be(come) (more) "free". Once you have fully accepted your condition that is. Since you feel "everything" you can (theoretically) quite easily let go off it. At least you can sense it in the first place which is a good first step, right.

Two - accepting the vagueness of "just feeling" to me right now is like coming home. Relieving myself of the perceived need to do or think or figure out and instead just allowing myself to trust in my feelings, makes everything so light, soft and right. The adjustments to the functioning of the outer world are there any ways so the kids will be put to bed, the dishes and the taxes done - that should be of no concern. Aaaaah, the relieve

Hi Trinity - I just wanted to connect to say thanks for posting the Buddha quote above. After reading it - it stayed with me and I'm amazed at how the contemplation of those words has helped so much. Very grateful, thank you.

I find it is about softening. In the first instance when pain arises there for me a desire to change it. That holds the pain in place. So just the awareness of that creates a softening.
As Chris has hinted at, who has the pain. When I can see that there is nobody feeling the pain, only pain in a vacuum, it takes the attachment out of the situation.
A good question I heared the other day is ' am I willing to be with this forever', if the answer is yes, then your home and hosed.

Wow...after coming in from the partial lunar eclipse I was able to witness from my front, was going to say yard but actually it's a paddock...ha ha....I received notification this morning that a new comment had been lodged and made my way here..happy to be back and pop in again.....so many lovely reflections that have been added to Trinities original article.....it's been a while since I've been here and in that tine one of my BFO's was to "completely" take personally everything I might feel on my journey through life's various day to day happenings....it's a tall order and a big call for an empath ~ but for me, a decision I needed to make because ~ that's LIFE..for me..

I AM Living Intuitively Feeling Everything that comes my way....I agree with Richard that we DO indeed take on and carry others unresolved emotions...the one's they refuse to face while putting on a facade of the opposite energy to the one they are avoiding...so projecting one thing while holding tight to the other...and since emotion seeks movement it will go to whoever gives it that movement...an "empath".....that being the case, I would still recommend...and it's what I have done....that in such an instance ~ I would nevertheless feel and OWN the energy within me of that negative movement, as it probably does indeed hold that which requires resolution within me also ...so these energies in the past have probably altered some configuration within me that needs to be tweeked back on track for my own soul's resonance to become stronger......I have noticed that when I do do that.....do fine tune any remaining inconsistencies, that allowing dissonant energy to flow through me has caused....it then seems these so called "unresolved or unacknowledged energies"in others simply have nothing to hook onto in me....then it feels like "water off a ducks back"....they simply slide away with no effort on my part....well enjoyed popping in again and saying hi to everyone ♥

and thanks to you Ursula, to also drag me back in here, for me too it's a nice re-visit of some of these issues.

i would also like to back you up on the "owning it" issue... i still feel many/most of us still play the game of "trying to avoid" in every possible moment.

... AND what a fine game that is!!!! hahahaha! Sometimes i have the impression this hide and seek is one of those cosmic jokes that the Universe/God /WhateverYouNameIt likes to entertain itself with,

but what blessing it is for us too.

wondering also who the spectator really is... --- just joking

beautiful lunar eclipse the other night, i had the chance to bathe in it too... you know it's a series of 3 eclipses (sun eclipsing at the next new moon, and then yet another moon eclipse at the next full moon in May) - pretty potent!

I have been to this thread before many times but as the sun rises this morning and unveils the frost on the roof tops it is as though my eyes for the first time read the volumes of expressions that scroll from start to finish. I feel the connection within the room, the silent understanding. I have a warm smile on my face that needs no interpretation as I see each of you in the mirror. I have spent much time in the shadows, blending and weaving within the conformity of safety as not to ruffle the feathers upon societies back. I have spent a lifetime mastering the many shades of the chameleon, flowing with the energies and unknowingly avoiding my own. The well has been filled with suppression, my voice bounded by my own unconscious choosing. I stand in front of the door marked by liberation, my hand turns the key. What waits on the other side feels like a life that I have yet to live. This article and the ensuing words resonate with my heart and I thank you all. Love. Mike

Hey Mike,
you always amaze me with your subtlety, softness and the way it is expressed in your words, but this last one is a K.O. (for me).

Beyond the softness of the You, there is such a strength though.

This particular 'room' is one of a kind for sure. I'm glad you're too contributing to its energy.

I do hope whatever awaits you 'on the other side' (which for sure is infused with the side you're walking on now) will be worthy of what you and your life already IS.
Anyway, as you know so well no doubt, it's all "this side".

"I have spent a lifetime mastering the many shades of the chameleon, flowing with the energies and unknowingly avoiding my own. The well has been filled with suppression, my voice bounded by my own unconscious choosing. I stand in front of the door marked by liberation, my hand turns the key. What waits on the other side feels like a life that I have yet to live."

I feel certain that there is another life to live but I don't yet stand by the door. If you do, I wish you the very best exploration and I hope to join you soon!

I agree with Reka and Bethan, your words Mike are so soothing and yet cut like the knife of clarity right into the truth of it......so many of us are on this path of sifting through the dross to reach deep into the elemental truth of our nature, to then live it while peeling of all that disagrees with this new version of ourselves...recently I read a beautiful story about an African Tribe where the mother sits in silence and listens for the song of her child, she teaches the father this song, they hum it as they conceive the child, she hums it through the gestation and the villagers sing it at the birth...when the child/adult acts out of integrity the whole village surrounds him/her and sings it to remind the person of their soul's song......we westener's have the beautiful yet ominous challenge of "hearing" amidst the clamor and turmoil, the noise that drowns out our own soul song....our mission is to hear it in the mist and pursue it, often it is so faint we move forwards on faith alone and yet as we do....pursue our soul's song with ardent fervor it does, it's gets louder and louder until it's all we can hear and BE....

The irony I see is that the path towards this song of our soul is via our feelings and to this end being an empath is of course required....sensitivity to energies and the requirement to build discernment around that.....yes, I am on my way to the other side too...through that door and it is good....loving all the words dear friends ♥ ♥ ♥

Ahh, what a welcome revival here
i so thoroughly enjoy this thread now, i simply bathe in this fresh and distinct quality that is running through the words and expressions...

Ursula, thanks for bringing the Song of the Soul story in here. As a doula I've always been touched by it soo deeply.

To tune into the subtle frequency (song) of our own souls is something which is (i'd say) simply compelling. Sooner or later it happens anyway, there is no choice, it becomes simply too painful, i feel.

For us westerners it's like trying to tune in without a tuning fork though... But then, something does come that hits the tone which is at the core of our being. And at that point this structure --called our body, and the lifeconditions that result-- starts to realign and restructure and shape into a perfect instrument which is ready and open enough to bring the music out in the way that resonates with our deepest essence.

Discernment, yes, important, as well as right action. But as much as these, surrender too.

I'm just reading a beautiful book called Body of Wisdom (by Hilary Hart, drawing from many traditions, Tao, shamanic and Sufi). This morning's inspiration from it were her words on how --besides the traditional tools for the continuous tranformation (that our life is), like 'doing', discipline, willpower, or the need of breaking "free", etc.-- a more earth bound (feminine?) quality of simple awareness, curiousity and open acceptance might (also) be needed.

How often do we find ourselves caught up in cycles of inertia, like the ancient symbol of the ouroboros suggests (serpent biting its own tail), repeatedly finding ourselves back on the same grounds... when any hope for progress, advancement to "another side" dissolves into the realization that we are nowhere.

But this longing I hear from your words Mike, Ursula, and Bethan too, this longing to tune into our own soul frequency, to contribute to life, to live as ourselves, to be empowered, to serve, is a source of tremendous energy for change and realization.

Thank you all for this, I am humbed by your essence, it is touching me deeply.
Love
Réka

I've never seen empath ability described so beautifully! I love the idea of owning the ability without taking ownership of the emotions we pick up.

After I realized that I was an Empath (15 years ago), I began working hard to release emotion and create detachment through my meditation practice.

While I still pick up the feelings, I'm not affected in the same way I was as a child, and the experience doesn't typically last as long.

I often mentally thank the information I'm receiving, and then release the feeling by focusing on the sensations in my body. I also might pick up mental or emotional content, and then I choose whether or not to share it with the person I'm relating to. Obviously, if I'm in a room with people, I won't know (typically) whose is what!

One of the biggest issues I see is that feeling overwhelmed by emotion can lead to a non-empathic response of an Empath who feels burdened by the information received. I totally understand this. But, it can create a divide between what is received and a response that is healing. But, when we are able to help each other understand, this can change!

It is a true gift to have this ability (and I'm so grateful), especially when I find sites like this one, that provide support, knowledge, and encouragement. So, thank you, Trinity!

Thanks for sharing Heather. It really warms me heart to hear that my sharing is helpful. My impetus to share was born from understanding the insane challenges that an empath faces...

One of the biggest issues I see is that feeling overwhelmed by emotion can lead to a non-empathic response of an Empath who feels burdened by the information received."

Absolutely! Thank you for giving voice to this. During my journey of unveiling my empathic beingness I have at times gone into absolute melt down at being so overwhelmed with the energies around me. It's very difficult for those who aren't empathic to understand this and a person is more likely to be locked up than supported. So information and understanding is crucial.

"I often mentally thank the information I'm receiving, and then release the feeling by focusing on the sensations in my body."

This feels like a great approach.

I have found that acceptance and non-judgement of the energy we are feeling is crucial to living life as a balanced empath. Without judging the energy it tends to flow through and onwards. Problems occur when we feel resentment, blame and judgement for the energies we are picking up... then they won't pass through, but rather gather with intense ferocity within - usually followed by an uncontrollable primal scream like outburst as the internal pressure becomes unbearable.

Thank you for sharing your positive experiences. It sounds as if you have travelled far on your journey.

Thank you, Trinity, for taking the time to read my post, though it's been nearly 2 years since you originally wrote this! I really appreciate it. I also love the discussion on this page. It's nice to know I'm not alone in my thoughts, questions, worries, and enjoyment of being an Empath.